Today is ‘International Tongue Twister Day’. To celebrate, learn some fun facts and see how quick your tongue can twist.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most difficult tongue twister to say is:
“The sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick.”
Other amazing tongue related feats on the Guinness World Records Website include:
- Longest female tongue: Chanel Tapper with a length of 9.652cm from the tip to the top lip. The site describes her tongue as, ‘wide as your plam, the same volume as a quarter pounder hamburger and the same length as an iPhone’.
- Heaviest weight lifted by a human tongue: Thomas Blackthorne of the United Kingdom lifted a weight of 12.653kg, hanging from his tongue.
- Worlds longest tongue: Stephen Taylor of the United Kingdom with a length of 9.8cm from the tip to the middle of his closed top lip.
According to World’sStrangest.com, there are some historical origins to some well-known tongue twisters.
According to the site, French Pirate and horticulturalist, Pierre Poivre was well known for raiding and stealing from spice stores. At this same time in history, all spices were referred to by the name ‘peppers’.
Also at this time it was common practice for companies who ran the spice trade to rub their seeds with lime before they were sold. This would ensure that the the seeds wouldn’t germinate if planted and keep the demand and price of their product high. The process was called ‘pickling’.
Alltogether, once Pierre Poivre’s name became Anglicised into ‘Peter Piper’, the still-famous tongue twister emerged:
Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
Source: www.patch.com
